“You a damn liar! ” Dooley raged. ”A damn frog-eyed liar. There ain’t no other place she could have gone.”
Outside, just off the porch, Lanny was listening to the ravings .
“This might throw a kink into things,” Park spoke softly.
“Maybe not. This might be a way to get rid of Cord and his boys in a war that even if the law was to come in, they’d call it a fair shootin . Man takes another man’s kid in without the father’s permission, that’s a shootin’ offense.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. You right.”
“If she did go to the Double Circle C,” Lanny added.
“Where else would she go? Her and that damn uppity Sandi McCorkle is good friends.”
“Rita is no fool. She just might have gone over to the Box T. But we won’t mention that. Just let Hanks play it his way.”
“I’m gonna tell you something, woman,” Hanks pointed blunt finger at his wife. “I find out you been lyin’ to me, I’ gonna give you a hidin’ that you’ll remember the rest of your life.”
“That would be like you,” she told him. “Whatever don’t understand, you destroy.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Dooley screamed at her, slobber leaking out of his mouth, dribbling onto his shirt and vest.
She turned her back to him and started to leave the
“Don’t you turn your back to me, woman! I done put with just about all I’m gonna take from you.”
She stopped and turned slowly. “What are you going to Dooley? Beat me? Kill me? It doesn’t make any difference. Love just didn’t die a long time ago. Your hatred killed it. Y hatred, your obsession with power. You allowed our sons to grow up as nothing more than ignorant savages. You...”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Dooley screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. “Lies, all lies, woman. I’m ridin’ to get my kid back. And when I get her back here, I’m gonna take a buggy whip to her backside. That’s something I shoulda done a time ago. And I just might take it in my head to use the whip on you.”
Liz stared hard at him. “If you ever hit me again, Dooley. I’ll kill you.” Dooley recoiled as if struck with those words. “And the same goes for Rita. But you’ve lost her. She’ll never come back here; don’t worry about that. I’ll tell you where she’s gone, Dooley. She’s gone to the Box T.”
“Lies! More lies from you. Cord planned with you all on this, and you know it. He’s con-spired agin me ever since we come into this area. He’d do anything to get at me. He’s jealous of me.”
His wife openly laughed at that.
Dooley’s face reddened and he took a step toward his wife, his hand raised. She backed up and picked up a poker from the fireplace.
“You were warned,” she told him. “You try to hit me and I’ll bash your head in.”
He stood and cursed her until he ran out of breath. But she would not lower the poker and even in his maddened state he knew better than to push his luck.
“I’ll deal with you later,” he said, then turned and stalked out the door.
She leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, listening to him holler for his men to saddle up and get ready to ride. She did not put down the poker as long as he was on the front porch. Only when she heard him mount up and the thunder of hooves pound away did she lower the poker and replace it in the set on the hearth.
She walked outside to stand on the porch, waiting for the dust to settle from the fast-riding men. She noticed Gage and several of the other hands had not ridden with her husband.
The foreman walked over to the porch and looked up at the still attractive woman. There was open disgust in his eyes as he took in the bruises on her face.
“I ain’t got no use atall for a man who hits a woman,” Gage said.
“That’s not the man I married, Gage.”
“Yeah, it is, Liz. It’s the same man I been knowin’ for years. You just been deliberately blind over the years, that’s all.”
“Maybe so, Gage.” She sighed. She knew, of course, that Gage had been in love with her for a long, long time. And her feelings toward the foreman had been steadily growing stronger with time. She cut her eyes toward him. “You’re not riding with him?”
“Me and the boys punch cows, Liz. I made that plain to him the other day. He still has enough sense about him to know that someone has to work the spread.”
“What would you say if I told you I was going to leave him?”
“Then me and you would strike out together, Liz.”
She smiled. “And do what, Gage?”
“Get married. Start us a little spread a long ways from here.”
“I’m a married woman, Gage. It’s not proper to talk to a married woman like that.”
“I don’t see you turnin’ around and walkin’ off, Liz.”
She looked hard at him. “Mister Hanks and I will be sharing separate bedrooms from now on, Gage. I would appreciate if you would stay close as much as possible.”
“I would consider that an honor, Liz.”
